Credit: CMPD
Detectives with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) Cold Case Unit have identified a 1996 murder victim using forensic genetic genealogy.
On July 18, 1996, human skeletal remains were found in a wooded area near Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. The remains were transported to the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner’s Office, where the victim was determined to be female. The manner of death was ruled a homicide. Despite efforts to identify the victim through conventional means, detectives were unsuccessful.
In 2022, the remains were sent to Raleigh for an osteological examination by a forensic anthropologist. With funding from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Foundation, bones were sent to Othram Labs in Texas for advanced DNA testing. The first attempt to obtain DNA was unsuccessful due to the condition of the remains.
In 2024, the Mecklenburg County Medical Examiner’s Office sent additional bones to Othram Labs for another DNA extraction. With continued funding from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Foundation, Othram Labs succeeded in obtaining a genetic profile. The victim’s profile was loaded into two consumer genealogy databases, GEDmatch and Family Tree DNA, which cooperate with law enforcement.
The CMPD Cold Case Unit partnered with Ramapo College of New Jersey’s Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center (IGG) to perform investigative genetic genealogy research. The IGG team quickly identified the victim as Betty Benton. Detectives then contacted her next of kin, learning that Benton had not been heard from since the early 1990s. A DNA profile from a family member confirmed that the victim was indeed Betty Benton.
Betty Jean Benton was born in Louisiana on Feb. 27, 1954. She spent most of her life in Chicago, Illinois. She was reported missing in 1992 and last contacted family members in February 1991, telling them she was in North Carolina. Detectives have been unable to find any record of Benton in North Carolina.
The CMPD Cold Case Unit is asking for the public’s help in this case. Anyone who may have had contact with Betty Jean Benton in North Carolina is urged to contact detectives. Her murder is still under investigation by the Cold Case Unit under complaint number 19960718-1043-00. Those with information should call 704-432-TIPS to speak directly with a detective.
As of April 4, 2025, the CMPD Cold Case Unit is still working to identify at least nine other victims, whose remains were discovered as far back as 1932.
Republished courtesy of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department